Airbus “Deal Closer” sets the retirement date

John Leahy, The man who sold $1,7trillion of worth of Aircraft for Airbus, hinted his retirement coming soon. The 67-year-old New Yorker has overseen 15,000 aircraft sales in his career with Airbus since 1985.
His retirement is planned between September and December this year would pave way for his successor Kiran Rao. Kiran Rao serves as an Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Airbus, who joined the company in December 1992.

The ‘Leahy’ became the household name in the Aviation world when he aggressively marketed Airbus’s media sensation Airbus A380 ‘Superjumbo’. Leahy was successful in pushing the Airbus Aircraft sales close to its rival Boeing, specially when he sold close to 100 superjumbo’s to Emirates.
According to Reuters, Leahy has agreed to stay on until the end of this year to match the sales with Boeing numbers before his retirement.
John leahy’s contribution to Airbus, increased its market share from 18% in 1993 to 57% a decade later. In 1994, Leahy was appointed chief commercial officer of Airbus and set a target for the company to achieve 50% market share by 2000, which he achieved in 1999. Ever since Airbus maintain more than 50% market share which Boeing took back in 2005 with its Dreamliner.

John Leahy, the “Deal Closer” is one of the successful Aviation businessman, lets wish him a happy retirement life.